Do You Have What It Takes to Run the IRS?

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 26: Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman addresses the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' 35th Annual National Tax Conference October 26, 2010 in Washington, DC. Shulman addressed a new IRS program requiring that anyone making money from completing tax returns must register with the IRS, pay a fee and pass competency tests and eventually attend continuing education programs. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Do you have what it takes to run the IRS? You may be in luck. Doug Shulman, current Commissioner of the IRS, announced during a Q and A at the National Press Club that he would not continue to serve past his five year term which ends in November.

While no IRS Commissioner has served more than five years, it was apparent that was where Shulman was headed. His annual speech was filled with a list of the IRS' achievements - and shortfalls - since he took office in 2008.

The IRS Commissioner, as Shulman noted, manages 100,000 employees and processes over $2.5 trillion annually for over 200 million individuals, businesses, and non-profits. That level of employee management is pretty impressive: according to the Census, fewer than 1,000 U.S. companies even come close those kinds of numbers, puts it on par with Marriott, GM and Starbucks and well ahead of Apple and Microsoft.

In his annual speech, Shulman noted that government had a "real reluctance to fund IRS technology in a way that is commensurate with its mission." Shulman pointed out that IRS expenditures on long term enhancements to IT was less than 3%, a number that is "shockingly low" compared to the private sector. In what was perhaps a slap on the hand of Congress, Shulman pointed out that the President has proposed a much-needed substantial increase in the IRS technology budget; that budget has not been approved.

Shulman also touted the new requirements for tax return preparers which moved forward on his watch. Under the new rules, the IRS has registered over 840,000 return preparers and have begun administering a competency test for any preparer who is not a CPA, attorney or enrolled agent.

There has been a corresponding jump in employee satisfaction with Shulman reporting that during his tenure, the IRS has earned kudos for being a good place to work (yes, you read that correctly). From 2008 to 2011, the IRS moved from 8th place to 3rd place among the fifteen large agencies with over 20,000 employees in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey.

The IRS has also become faster and more efficient at processing tax returns. E-filing is, of course, at the center of that transition with Shulman claiming that it costs only about 15 cents to process an e-filed return compared to approximately $3.50 to process a paper return. Taxpayers get their tax refunds faster with e-file with fewer processing errors.

And, of course, the crown jewel in Shulman's tenure has been the increase in crackdown on offshore tax evasion. Shulman took the opportunity to remark on the results of the ramped up focus on offshore tax evasion. Particularly, he pointed to the crack in the Swiss banking secrecy laws, the first time that has happened in history. Under the most recent voluntary disclosure programs, 33,000 voluntary disclosures from individuals brought in $4.4 billion - a number that is expected to grow.

Shulman ended by talking about the need to react quickly to "whatever the future may hold."